I'm currently trying to strip the finish off of a FWB300s jr stock and the currently available strippers are just not getting the job done. I tried Jasco and Kwik Strip and they both work about the same. I'm 65 and if I live to be around 85, I'll get all the finish off!
A few years ago I used Citri Strip and it cut the finish off of a 300 really fast and the finish came off in great big sheets and blobs on the first try and then it took two or three more tries to get it completely clean of finish. Our wonderful government took Methylene Chloride out of strippers, so now they should be marketed as cleaners and not strippers.
Anyone have any suggestions on how to strip the finish? I'm in the process of trying Acetone, and MEK is next, but I'm hoping someone has a good idea.
I used Zar stripper to strip a BSA Challenger stock and my Webley Tomahawk fairly recently. Very handily. Came out of the checkered areas with a wire brush very nicely. If you have a Sherwin Williams store that deals mostly with pros (like me) you can ask them. Not a regular store that deals mostly with Johnny homeowner. Although the regular stores might know, their managers don't often know much. Home Depot, Lowes, and the like don't usually know anything. They don't deal with us real pros day in day out.
Auto body supply house can also recommend you a good stripper. They'll know.
@channellxbob Try using lacquer thinner. If it's an early 300 it'll be a lacquer finish & it'll come right off. Later models may have catelized lacquers which might need a particular thinner.
Me, I'd rather get it off in wrinkled up sheets from stripper than wipe and wipe with rags or whatever. I just use a sharp putty knife but you can't be a butcher and start hacking it up. If it doesn't scrape off easy it's not ready yet.
Thinned lacquer wiped all over it would be like sanding sealer. I'd rather not have that.
Is this thing beech or walnut?
I think the methyl chloride degrades with age, so try from an unopened can. You can get the product from pro level auto or aircraft resto suppliers? I recently used acetone to strip a old airgun stock (Falke); use gloves, don't let methyl chloride contact the skin at all, and acetone only in very small amounts: corrodes the skin and will rot the liver.
I second Knobs’ recommendation- the original finish on those guns was lacquer. I did a 300B a few years ago that way. I stripped the finish with solvent, steamed out most of the dents, gave it a new Tru-Oil finish and it looked fantastic.
